Robert Young Examines Eichmann

Is it just me, or are Nazis really popular right now? Never mind, I know the answer. Still, it feels like just yesterday I posted about a new Nazi-based documentary called My Enemy's Enemy(it was last week, in fact), and just a few months ago, Martha mentioned a remake of The Boys From Brazilthat's in the works. Add those films to the recent Hitler-centered Downfall, and you've got a ... well, nothing resembling a trend at all, actually. But considering we in America like to think of Nazis as being anything but real, distinguishable and human, these sorts of films are more striking than, say, Indiana Jones and the Latest Adventure Involving Faceless Nazis or any number of WWII movies.

The latest addition to this non-trend of real-life Nazi movies is Eichmann, which begins shooting in Hungary next week. The film focuses on the life of Adolf Eichmann, an SS officer who was "Transportation Administrator" for the "Final Solution", meaning he organized all the trains sending Jews to their deaths. Not only was he responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Polish and Hungarian Jews, but he continued to carry out the Nazi's extermination plan even after Heinrich Himmler ordered its end. Like many Nazis, he fled to Argentina, and like Klaus Barbie, subject of My Enemy's Enemy, he was reportedly protected for some time by the CIA before being captured and put on trial. Eichmann will concentrate primarily on the his cross-examination by Israeli police officer Captain Avner Less with sequences from the war depicted in flashback.